Geography project.

 

I did my project on the IRISH WOLFHOUND as seen in my previous blogpost,    (Blogpost 1)
but when I went to read over my google map once more ,  (Geography Project google map) I decided to add to it.
I Found out that a few of the countries that I had on my map also shared another animal in common. 
The Black Swan. I dont know if anyone else has ever known of them , but I didn't. To me the name was the name of a movie!


So i just wanted to add a little bit more to my map , of two very beautiful animals! 

Few Facts about The Black Swan.
Black swans have black feathers with white flight feathers and a bright red bill. 
They eat only plants and marshland.
the babies of a black swan are grey-ish white .
They started off in Australia.
There is more on the Map , :)

People..GO TO CHOIR

One thing  i  got the chance to do this year was start choir. Dont get me wrong, im not one for singing in front of people or being on stage but its been so much fun this year. We have sang in the music night , now we are getting ready for the end of year service ,and then next year our aim is to go to wesely.
Wesley is a big competition for soloists and choirs, and WE SHALL BE THERE with one of the FABULOUS french songs from "the chorus" Carresse le ocean . If you know it you will want to be in choir , its so amazing and me and Leah have quite the challenge of teaching the lyrics to the choir , who majority of do Spanish..


But still , ive loved being in choir and will finish school in choir , allot more confident about singing , and its so much fun :)

five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes.

For our TY night song , we chose "seasons of love from Rent. There are so many high parts and we have had great laughs listening to all the classes attempt them!
Its getting so close to the end of Ty, but this week I'm to busy to get upset ! We have an English, maths, and french exam and we have an Irish oral.  Doesn't sound like much if your in 3rd year but after having all projects tests are like being back in 1rst year! the pressure is on to show how much we paid attention! I'm sure we will be grand.. just need to get back into the hang of study!
TY night is in 2 weeks, and its going to be a great night for everyone hopefully! We have a good theme, great performances and of course, the giving out of the FABULOUS TY hoodies! Me and Caitriona took weeks collecting money, and taking surveys to make sure everyone was so what happy and they finally arrived! We are happy with them and we hope that everyone else is after all the hype!

*crys*

Its coming so close to the end of TY and its hard to think about it. Its been so incredible. But we cant be getting to sad because for our last month we too have tests , projects and TY night! TY night is where we showcase what we have done all year to our parents. We put up all projects and fun work , and people tell the audience exactly what we have been doing this year.
Its gonna be a long night because we have done so much! and any parent out there who taught we were "dossing off" for the year will be very much mistaken! 
coming up to it ( its a month away) we all have to organise things. people are on different subjects and have to plan how they want everything displayed on the night. They will also be there to show parents.. i think.
It really is just one giant group project! we all have to pull our weight to get the night to be successful, we have to make it look good!
Also me and caitriona are getting so excited about the hoodies we have organised for the students and teachers. they will be ready so soon! hopefully they are what people are expecting!
Each and every TY is up to their eyes in work and projects .. and we have tests earlier too so its going to be hectic!

My "Geography of" project

For geography , we have a project and it has to be "the geography" of something.. so i chose the Irish wolfhound.
I know its random but i wanted to see if the Irish wolfhound was popular in other countries and how it was treated there.
So i did a google map to show where the Irish wolfhound actually is , and all the clubs that train and breed them around the world. they were popular in Ireland , America, Australia , England and Wales, & New Zealand.


Geography of Irish Wolfhound map


this is a link to the map i did! But i wanted to go deeper into how they treat Irish wolfhounds in these countries so here's some facts about them.


In America , they went under tests to see why they died early. The results shown that they died most commonly of bone cancer at a young age because they are so big.


Most "breeding" in all these countries are healthy ad natural . The dogs don't go under any cruelty in these clubs. They are treated saintly!


apparently an Irish wolfhound costs a minimum of 900$ and goes up to about 1,700$ !


Irish wolfhound females weigh  on average 106 pounds and the males are around 119 pounds.


The History:
its said that the breed was brought to Ireland in 700 BC . Its one of the largest breeds in the world!The breed almost disappeared, but was successfully revived by efforts of the captain of the British Army D E Graham to recreate it. He drew the line related to Wolfhounds, and as a result developed a modern breed, Irish Wolfhounds, which are today well established as companions and guards.


 Cúchlain, a name which translates literally as "hound of Culain", gained his name when as a child, known then as Setanta, he slew the ferocious guard dog of Culain forcing him to offer himself as a replacement.


These dogs were so interesting to base my geography project on . They are actually all around the world , but have maintained there name as the Irish wolfhound. They are loved all over the country, and from what Ive learned , very rarely abused or mistreated because of their size!

Book review number two

For my second book review I read the second book in the Hunger Games trilogy. I felt this book carried on very well from the first. when i first read the first book i didn't see how Suzanne Collins could carry on the story but she hits her audience with shock and awe when its announced what Katniss Everdinn and Peeta Mellark must do next.


The Second book , in my opinion is just as heart racing and fast moving as the last. Its names "Catching Fire " as the book elaborates on katniss everdinn "the girl on fire" thanks to her stylist  Cinna.


After causing rebellion in district 11 the mayor of Panem  isn't happy with Katniss' act of fury at the end of the first Hunger games book, so he warns her to be careful which boy she chooses , as the capitol will only be happy with Peeta , not Gale .


He also shows a severe lack of heart for Katniss and this is when she realises that the mayor will get her back for what she did. In this book it is the 75th Hunger Games , which is also known as the "Quarter Quell" . Each Quarter Quell throughout the years have had a twist on them different from the other games. The twist that the mayor picks out from a box of envelopes on live TV over panem is sure to make peeta and Katniss pay, and it certainly does . 


As Katniss must set off again , she wishes she has never had success in the previous games . "I mourn my old life here. We barely scraped by, but I knew where I fit in…" 


She must leave Gale behind in order to keep him and her family from danger , as new peace keepers move in to district 12 , they are allot stricter on rules, and use violence to get their way . Gales pays for trespassing over to the woods, and this is when everything in Panem changes.


With a huge twist at the end of this book , i was absolutly  hooked. i literally couldn't put it down!

"…any girl who goes to such lengths to preserve her life isn’t going to be interested in throwing it away with both hands."


"If my holding out those berries was an act of insanity, then these people will embrace insanity, too. "

40 miles ... what?!

On Friday the Tys and LCVP 5th years set off to swim plenty of miles to raise money for the cancer ward and barretstown.
I swam half a mile with Leah , which is 32 lenghts each.. it seems small but it was hard! its allot tougher than it looks!
Well done to the 8 girls who swam a mile each , that was incredible! Our year beat the record of 25 miles swam by one school with 42 MILES.
http://swimamile.webnode.com/

Swim a mile with a smile

tomorrow we have the Ian daly swim a mile . everyones excited and nervous. im swimming half a mile (32 lenghts) and Leah is swimming the other half :)
wish us luck!

“Happy Hunger Games! And may the odds be ever in your favor.”

For my book review I chose to read "The Hunger Games" written by Suzanne Collins. The Book is part of a trilogy. The books are written in the voice of  a 16 year old girl called Katniss Everdeen trough her hard life living in a poor town and trying to fend for her family , in Panem.
The hunger games was incredibly written and thought out. South America is split into 12 districts or towns , Katniss lives in number 12 , the poorest district that produces coal. The capitol rules over all the 12 districts and to remind them of a horrible rebellion in district 13 that killed everyone who lived there, they host the hunger games.


The games are purely for the capitols enjoyment but the president claims its to remind everyone to follow the wealthy capitol and that they are on the districts sides.


The Hunger Games are an annual event in which one boy and one girl aged 12 to 18 from each of the 12 districts surrounding the Capitol are selected by lottery to compete in a televised  battle in which only one person can survive.


on "Reaping day" primrose , katniss' sister, is called to be part of the games. Katniss volunteers, and a boy Peeta Mellark in chosen to join her in her fate in the arena.


The book is full of surprises and is constantly moving at an exciting pace. Things get hard for katniss when Peeta expresses his love for her on live television in front of all of Panem. The two must help each other trough the arena , with the help of wealthy sponsors sending them food  and medicine ,while overcoming some of the strongest districts along the way.


The Book is Fast, Fierce, upsetting and sometimes humorous , and the trilogy is an incredible series of books , following life after the Games, or so everyone thinks , until you start the second and third book. The books and story keep shocking me , with its originality and suspense .


“You don’t forget the face of the person who was your last hope.” 
― Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games


   
I Would rate The Hunger Games ( Book 1) 5 stars, because I loved every moment on the book , and it was always exciting and never failed to grab my attention!

I Feel Pretty

Tonight is the Music Night. Its been busy getting ready for it . The TY Classes Banba and Eriu are singing Shake it out by florence and the machine , I am playing piano for that , which is fun but for some reason i feel alot of pressure, because i have to give everyone notes to sing on Que and stuff, scary. Then the choir is singing I feel pretty, and by the end of each rehersal im fit to pass out from the high notes! And then ive offered to be backstage because ,well, ill be there all night, might as well make myself usefull!

Music Night!

Music night in our school is coming up , and being in TY gives me the opertunity to by involved in it :)
Eriu and Banba are preforming "Shake it out" by the fabulous Florence Welch , andwe all have our own part in it. Im on Piano or should i say organ , girls are playing drums , there are solos, and the rest of the girls sing the whole song. Its coming together really well! We have practiced a few times , and theres a few problems , but its fun , espicially for  people who love music and music class :)
Then this year i joined Choir because lunch time isnt as valuble to me , as it was last year ! So we are Singing "I feel pretty" , which we all find hilarious,because we have to sing it with "confidence" so we all have some fun with it.

Learning..

We were given two talks in the last few days, one on Internet safety and the other on female engineers at Intel.
The First talk really opened every ones eyes to the type of things that can happen on the Internet  and on face book. The man who spoke with us was so down to the point and really got across how dangerous some people are and how careful you should be. He told us things to do and not to do and the impact his talk had on the seniors in our school was incredible. everyone acted on it straight away . people were checking their friends on  face book to make sure they know everyone , and unhooking web cams and so on . I'm so happy we got it, because i would not have known half the things that people can do to someones life over the Internet , it was truly shocking.


The talk about Intel was also really interesting. Female workers came to tell us to work at Intel and why and to be honest , if I didn't have an idea of career already i would have been sold! the work that goes into all those tiny chips that let us use computers and phones incredible!  They use robots , which obviously caught our attention , but not robots that we were all imagining. They girls were really great and all told us about their degrees.
 

..

So for my last post i showed pictures of braveforce from the website, but now I have ones of us thanks to girls who daringly brought their cameras into the wilderness!

 

Cold , so very cold.

!We went to Brave force assault course today, and now that I'm showered and have had tea, I shall blog about it :)

First we set off to meath on the bus , all nervous to see what we had signed up for. When we got there we saw to other schools, who had trained their athletics teams for the race , and 10 from each school. We arrive , all 80 of us , ready to have some fun , NOT trained and NOT ready at all.
At the starting line people shot off, but me and some other girls thought to let them win seeing as they had trained , and we jogged it at our own pace , having such a laugh on the way!
The first obstacle was basically jumping in chest high below freezing point water, and getting out by climbing a rope, that was interesting.. we jumped right into it!
then we came across streams to walk trough, bails of hay to jump over, hills, logs and stuff like that. Then we can too a giant climbing frame and for people who aren't to sure about heights like myself , it was daunting! we had to climb logs with a very big space in between them up to the top and then slide down a net on the other side!
I love all the water obstacles the most, especially the one where we had to climb over logs! and then of course the last one where the water  was up to our chins!

I had a great time , and despite being freezing and probably more sick than ever.. it was so worth it. We are the first group of TYs to do it from our school , and hopefully they will do it again, always different girls!aha


 

Braveforce.. DUNDUNDUN

Tomorrow Most of the TYs, as it is optional.. will be facing BRAVEFORCE ! it looks really tough but it should be fun. Basically its a race but me being sick , im not sure if ill be running the whole way! We dont get showers , we get "hosed down" and get changed with other schools , it will be hilarious.!

Today we got our forms for our subject choices, and to be honest it made me really happy about TY  ( not that i was EVER upset with it) just the fact that we got this extra time to explore all subjects and think about what we are good at and what job we want  to aim for is amazing. I know now exactly the path I want to choose, and i was able to fill out my form straight away. Things are abit different this year , we dont choose 1,2, and 3, we just had to pick one on each row of subjects , and make sure they dont clash, lucky for me , my 3 subjects dont! :)
Im so happy because i was terrified that they would clash on the timetable , but i got very lucky!

Be jolly, buy a lolly..

last friday we set off to town to sell lollipops , for an Oesophageal cancer fund. Its called  lolipop day. you can read all about it , if you click the link there!
It was great fun , and it really showed me how hard you have to work to get people to support charities! next time i see someone on the street with a bucket ill be putting money in! its a logn day of standing and trying to get people to donate, but when someone does , its a great feeling:)
Me , Emma,Fiona & Jenny were together , and went trough 3 buckets of lollipops and pins , so we were pleased with the amount we had raised :D
It was a fun day out and of course we got mcdonalds which makes it better.. it just a thing we all do now , after alot of days out..not complaining!

Best Night...ever.

I love TY and everything 2011/2012 has lashed at me so far, but Friday night, 2nd of march , I went to the 02 to see  FLORENCE & THE MACHINE !
i can safely say, it was the best concert I have ever been too, she was AMAZING!
Ill never ever forget it!

work experience take 2!

For my second work experience I went to my old primary school ,St.Brigits. :)
I dont want to be a teacher of any kind, and i didnt think i was good with kids to be honest, but one day in the school , and i loved each and every girl in 1rst class :)
I still want to work with animals, but my work experience really showed me that i could maybe help out at schools with spare time ,( if i ever have it!) and I would actually enjoy it!
I do Art, so the teacher i was with gave me art for the WHOLE WEEK. I was in my element! i made displays & posters for the classroom and had so much fun. I even thought a girl english! It was so incredible:)
we had alot of freedom , and had our own lunch time in the staff room. we were able to go out to the village , and to each others classes ( leah and shanen!)
I really enjoyed it , and miss everyone there already.

Good Luck!

To every 3rd year and 6th year, doing their mocks right now, best of luck , i know you wont be stopping your study to have a read of the TY blogs , but even after , if you see this post, we have all been thinking of you , in those horrible exams.
:)

Next week , on tuesday we are taking a trip to kildare , for St brigits day. I have no idea what we are doing but all i know is , its ment to be a great trip and we need runners!

Still awaiting our results from the drama in Mullingar! Im so excited to find out if my group "Concrete Angel" has gotten trough, if we so , were off to cork ( or somewhere along those lines) so that would be a great trip too!

So many oppertunities come up in TY , So to any 3rd years reading my blog (hey) take them! it really helps you get the most out of the FANTASTIC year ahead for you! be excited!

Fighting Words

So last week , my class  got to go to a creative writing talk in "Fighting Words" Dublin.
Isabelle and Catriona had to go up in front of us all and say anything that came to their heads , about Isabelle's little brother!
As they talked a man typed everything and then we made it into a story. We wrote an opening passage and they printed it off for us and we had to try finish it. Al tough not many people would read theirs out, everyone did a good job, and it was a nice trip away from school :)
On Tuesday we went up to Mullingar to preform our very own drama, for an audience that included most of Fodla ( the other TY class) and our English teachers. It was SO much fun . We really experienced how it is to be conducting our own drama and calling all the shots, and now we are all awaiting the results for who got into the next competition!
We were given the power of stage , lighting ,and sound all to ourselves, so it really was down to us. The only thing we found hard to keep up with during our performance , was talking loud enough to fill all the audience, as we had no microphones!! Trying to act said , while screaming ,really didn't show the emotion we were hoping for but we tried our best to get a good mix.
Im not to sure who , if any , got in from our school , but i think we all did really super :) We had alot of tear-jerking moments! So best of luck TYs, we all tried our best :)

photos..

Just came in from our "photoshoot" for our class Eriu. We get photos of our faces put up on the wall in school , for the whole school to see. Some girls care, personally i find it hilarious! People feel presured to look so nice its so funny!
Tomorrow , we are going to the Young Scientist to see all the girls from our school in it and wish them luck , as they find out the results of all thier hard work on friday evening.
the YS is a great fun , because some of the projects , including the ones from the girls in our school are so interesting , that even people who dont like science ( shock, who couldnt love science) enjoy them selves.
From the robot that solve srubix cubes to the green screen that makes you look like your on RTE news , its such a good day out , and an  even better FOUR DAYS for all the girls there from Wednesday!
Today we started working on  the florence ( gasps) hit " Shake it out" . Im playing piano , saoirses on the flute , and Georgias playing guitar from our class , its sounding good already and we have only played it today!
I think Banba , another TY class are singing it with us for the music night, because TYs are asked to get involved in alot and we dont mind.
Tys were also given a talk on Subject choices in careers ,so we are all finally believing that , unfortunitly there is life after TY and that is 5th year. Honestly doesnt bother me, its a chance to get on with our senior cycle and im happy with my choices that I am going to make.
Still TY has form our personalities, so i will miss it , when its over ,NOT FOR A LONG LONG TIME!

Back To School.

yes , we are back to school, but does it bother me? for the first time in a long time, no it doesnt bother me at all.
I guess it because TY is actually fun , and I dont dread it every morning! Yes I wish I could sleep in every morning, but now the weekends are back to and exciting few days , instead of another day in the holiday.
I miss holidays ALOT! but 2012 is exciting! All the TYs moved option class today. Which is basically if we were doing art, we moved to home ec, if you did home ec you moved to tech, so on. I really like the idea of moving classes , because it lets us see what we are interested in , that we may nto have none.
Another work experience for another year, i have placements in three places, just to pick on is the hard part! Im so excited to have another week of WE coming up , Because i enjoyed the last one so much , that I am volunteering in the DSPCA this summer:)